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RESPONSE:

The purpose of the study, Human resource management in the US, Europe and Asia: Differences and characteristics (Uysal, 2009), was to discuss differences and characteristics between HRM in the US, Europe and Asia through a review of the relevant articles.

The review reveals several findings. The divergence was found in HRM practices between markets due to cultural and legal differences that enable international firms to adapt local norms. They also found that one way of effectively managing their international practice was the firm's ability to identify characteristics in managing human resources. The characteristics reflected in Hofstede's cultural anlaysis include:

? First, the impact of culture on HRM can be seen in individualism and collectivism, and differences in short and long term orientation.

For example, the US and Asian firms can differ on long-term orientation. For example, Hong Kong firms have long-term, US firms have short-term orientation (Fields et al., 2006, p. 172, as cited in Uysal, 2009). Long-term orientation in Japanese firms provides them of investing in projects with long-term payoffs (Kaplan, 1994, as cited in Uysal, 2009), e.g., in training and development so that employees can learn firm-specific skills and knowledge (Tanova, Karadal, 2006, p. 143, as cited in Uysal, 2009). Therefore, this is because, might be, growth or market share is key element to evaluating firm success in Japanese companies while short-term profits or share is key to US firms (Kaplan, 1994, p. 511, as cited in Uysal, 2009).